The Power of Light
by Imi.Imz
Summary: This is a story of how the power of light uses the human race to protect the world from the dark. The main character is Maria, she is thrown into the middle of a raging war between the light and the dark. Can Maria protect the world and make peace again?
1. Prologue

**Prologue **_(from The Book Of Hamadian)_

In time and space it began. A war between two Powers, revenge against each other. They twisted and turned, they grew large and grew small, but, in the mist of all this fiery rock began to form, and plates began to move. Still the two Powers raged on in a war, oblivious to all else that moved. Great big rocks surged into the nothingness that was space. Green shoots began to appear, some with brightly coloured tops. The green shoots gradually increased in size and shape. Thus the growing of tree's began. All the while the Powers fought, not realising the world they were making.

Great swarms of bluish, greenish liquids began to pour over the gigantic rocks. Large pools were formed with mossy banks and sandy beaches. Area's of tree's and mountainous rock were separated and some brought together. It was during this procedure that the two Powers began to notice!

First there was silence, then came a loud roaring noise as the two Powers rushed towards their, rather abnormal, creation. One of the Powers made a great mountain range and destroyed all of the wonderful evergreen tree's. The massive swathes of liquid water was turned from bluish, greenish to a revolting red and black. The water flowed around some of the charred stumps of what used to be the evergreen tree's. The sky on that part of the world was turned black, with huge bolts of lightening charging down out of the blackness. Creature's with grey wings and very pointy beaks emerged and they sat on the charred evergreen tree's, they also occasionally 'cawed' for added evil. The Power then took the form of a great full silver moon.

The other Power, however, had a much different view of things. It kept the evergreen tree's and the greenish, bluish water, it even kept the great big rocks or mountains as they came to be called. The sky was blue with white wispy clouds, but, this was not without the occasional grey. The water that flowed on the ground also began to fall from the sky. Different creatures swarmed across the land, some small and some large, some had claws and some had hooves. A food chain was formed as the grass and the plants were eaten by the prey creatures, and the pray creatures were eaten by the predators. When the predators died, the grass and plants would grow over the corpse, thus forming a cycle. While all these creatures were great, a greater species was born. The race of human beings. Although primitive at first, their mind began to develop and grow stronger.. The power choose a few of these humans to hold a knowledge. A knowledge that could either help or hinder the great Power. Some of the humans wondered onto the other Powers side, thus the beings of evil were born.

Great armies were formed by both powers. The other Power took the form of a fiery ball of fire, this Power however, rested at certain a certain time each day. When this happened all would go black, and the creature's of the night would come out to prey. Years past and the minds of the humans grew as they managed to counter the endless attack of the evil minions. The few that had the knowledge tried to help, but, neither side could gain advantage.

The evil Power created only two with the knowledge. One to rule and one to assist. There names were Lorkoth and Ballen. Together they managed to gain only one in the land of the Good. The land of Morozan.

Still the good power did nothing significant and managed to evade the attacks of the evil, but, the humans were beginning to wonder how long they would last. The ones of the knowledge were also confused, they had no real leader. They knew that a prophecy of the good Power was that one day a leader would come along with a great white horse and with all the power to lead. That person would lead them against the armies of evil, and, defeat Lorkoth and his psychic Ballen.

The Powers got annoyed with their primitive names of good and evil, and decided to change. They became known as the Power of Dark and the Power of Light.

**The Power of Light**


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Drip. Drip. Drip. The noise was driving Maria insane! Her uncle still hadn't fixed the leak, which inconveniently, dripped into the middle of her room. Or, as Maria called it, a hovel. Maria believed that it wasn't big enough to deserve the word 'room'.

"John!" Maria shouted to her uncle, who was in the kitchen making breakfast.

"Yes?"

"That dam leak is dripping again!"

"Oh! Ok I'll see if I can fix it today" Uncle John replied.

Maria nearly laughed out loud. He wouldn't fix it. Her uncle had said that every time she had mentioned it.

Maria walked into the kitchen and grabbed the piece of toasted bread and headed outside. The sun shined brightly in the sky as Maria walked down into the middle of their village. The village, Darstone, was situated in the middle of two huge mountains. Mt Timon and Mt Guia. There were a few tree's, but, not many. Most was just grass and streams. There was a small rocky road that lead out and into the village. Not many travelled on that road. The odd person from Darstone may take a chance to save his family from having no money, to sell his produce in the bigger towns. None had ever returned. Nobody knew whether they had made it there or not. Their families were looked after other local villagers that had the money to cope. Such was the world.

The story remained Maria of her parents. Her farther had left Darstone to find a town were they could sell there crops from the land. He never came back. Maria's mother found it hard to cope without him and had later died of depression. Thus leaving Maria, at the age of 7, in the hands of her only family. Her uncle John. Maria looked back on those times like her own personal dark age, it was hard for Maria, but, she eventually pulled through and continued to help her uncle with farming the crops. Maria was now 18 years old.

As Maria made her way into the middle of Darstone, she noticed there was a crowd, it looked to be surrounding someone or something. As Maria neared she caught sight of Kayla. She was standing a little way back from the crowd, staring at the backs of about ten people.

"Hey! Kayla" Maria shouted.

Kayla turned towards Maria. Then she ran forward to meet her.

"Hey Maria. Have you seen the scorch hole?"

"The what? No I haven't what is it?" Maria was intrigued.

Kayla took Maria's hand and dragged her to were the crowd was gathered. They pushed their way through to find what was so interesting. Maria froze.

In the middle of the crowd was a, rather large, burnt hole. Like a lightening bolt had hit the ground. Maria knew it couldn't be a lightening bolt. She would of heard it. What struck her most about the whole was the fact that in the middle of it was the outline of a human body. Like someone had been laid or trapped there. This shocked Maria. The villagers were talking in whispers, like someone was near who they didn't want to hear. Fear was written across there faces. Maria stood there and gaped at the hole. _What could of possibly caused that _she thought. _Who was the man…or women that was unlucky enough to be in the way of such a…a…a…_Maria couldn't think of a word that would fit.

After about 5 minutes, the crowd began to disperse and walk in their own separate groups. Maria headed back to her uncles house, with Kayla in tow. _Uncle will want to hear about this. He'll be straight down there to examine it_ Maria laughed to herself. Her uncle John always managed to figure out the problem. The village didn't have a leader, but Maria's uncle was very close to it.

Maria and Kayla entered the house. There was a familiar smell of burning leather. Maria's uncle always cooked his shoes. He claimed that if you softened the leather they will last longer and are also more comfy.

"Uncle! You have to see what's happened in the village!" Maria said, impatience dominating her voice. She wanted to know what had caused a whole of that size, and, whether the person had survived what looked like a burn in the floor.

"Why? What's happened? There ain't no flu again is there?!"

Maria almost hoped that it was flu. That seemed so much better than a hole in the ground that seemed to scream danger at her every time she thought of it. She had no idea why.

"No its not flu. There's a hole in the middle of the ground. Its all burnt and there's a human imprint in the middle of it. Like someone was laid there!"

Her uncle gave her a look of confusion Then Kayla stepped in.

"John you have to come and see it for your own eyes. Did you hear Maria?! There's a hole in the ground. With a human body in it!"

Maria, again, almost laughed. Kayla was always overdramatic. She did laugh when alarm crossed her uncles face.

"I think Kayla means that there is a shape of a humans body in the whole. Not an actual human body!" Maria chuckled.

"Come on!" Kayla tugged at Uncle Johns sleeve.

"Kayla I'm sure its not going to run anywhere!" Maria chuckled.

"You never know these days!" Kayla replied.

By then they had made it out of the door. As they headed down, Maria noticed the crowd beginning to gather again as they saw uncle John walking towards the 'scorch hole' as Kayla called it. As uncle John made it to the hole, he stopped and stared at it. Maria began to worry, but, before she could say anything uncle John was on his knees examining every bit of the hole.

After a while he stood up and went to talk with the rest of the villages. Kayla had disappeared while Maria wasn't looking. Maria turned away from the gossiping villages and headed away from the 'scorch hole' to look for Kayla. She knew there would probably be no farming today. There never was when something 'out of the ordinary' happened. As Maria searched around Darstone for Kayla she began to get worried. She had seen no sign of Kayla anywhere. She searched the whole village, plus Kayla's and her uncles house. Maria was near one of the only cluster of tree's. She doubted Kayla would be in there. Too scary for Kayla in there. Maria was just about to turn when something shiny caught her eye. Maria walked towards the shiny object that was on the ground by the edge of the tree's. It was the very pointy and sharp tip of a sword. _Now what on earth is that doing here?_ Maria thought. No one in the village owned a sword. The point was too sharp to be a knife. Then something else caught Maria's attention. She moved toward a soft and shallow pool of mud. In the mud was a footprint. A human footprint. _Is this the foot print of the human in the hole or is it Kayla's? Or is someone else's? _Maria stared from the sword tip to the mud hole.


	3. Chapter 2

_**I should go back to the village and tell somebody. **_**Maria turned around and stopped again. Who was she going to tell? What would uncle John do. **_**He would go after her, **_**Maria thought. If her uncle went after Kayla he might not come back. Maria was not about to lose the last member of her only family. She thought of other people, still Maria couldn't imagine any of the villagers going after Kayla. Most were either too old or too young. The only other person that was Maria's age in the village was Kayla…and she was gone. **_**Maybe I should go look. I couldn't do any harm. Kayla would do the same thing for me.**_** Would she? Maria decided that it wasn't an important question. There was one thing she could do now and that was head back to the village and try and gather up a few supplies without looking too conspicuous. **_**What am I going to say to Billy? 'Oh hey Billy I don't know were Kayla is. She disappeared into the woods of no return!'. I cant say that?! Can I tell him?. **_**Billy was Kayla's dad. Her mother died while giving birth to Kayla. She was Billy's only child. By this time Maria was already half way back to the village. She stopped just before the rather spooky, decomposing little wooden archway, which one of the villagers had built to signify an entrance to the small village of Darstone. Maria didn't see the point of it. No one ever visited the village. The last person that had ever come through the 'forest of no return' was a very old man who was deaf and blind. People said it was a miracle that he made it through the forest. Maria thought that whatever was in the forest that got people wasn't that interested in a guy who had hardly any meat on his bones. Maria never aired her view though. Women were not as respected as men in the village of Darstone. It was an old tradition that the men were to always lead and have the best ideas. Maria thought it was stupid, and, the tradition was only there because the population of women in the village was about 15 compared to the population of men which was around the number of 30. Most of the women didn't survive child birth. Many fathers were left to cope with young boys, teaching them to farm and to harvest their crop to survive the winter. There were two young girls who had no mothers. Kayla who was 18 also had just a father. Then there was Maria, who was the same age as Kayla, but, had no parents. Maria was lucky she had her uncle in the village. She would of either have been taken into a family who were doing well for food or she would have been left to fend for herself. The latter would of most probably happened since not many could feed more than 5 people.**

**Maria started. There was a cry from the village. It was Billy. He was shouting for Kayla. **_**What am I going to say?! **_**Maria began to panic. **_**I know. I can tell him, she went towards my house, say ill go fetch her…then… **_**Maria froze. Could she really enter the forest. The forest which had claimed her father and now her friend. Maria felt a surge of rage and hate. That forest had taken two of the most important figures in her life. Maria felt tears whelling up inside. Tears of hate and anger, but, also of loss and sorrow. No, she couldn't cry now, she would give herself away. **_**Yes. I can…no! I will go into that forest, I will find Kayla and bring her back! **_**Maria wasn't sure how she was going to do it, but, she was. Maria strode into the village towards Billy. She kept herself composed and showed nothing.**

"**Hey Billy! Something wrong?" she asked cheerfully.**

"**Hey Maria. Have you seen Kayla anywhere?"**

"**I'm sure I saw her heading towards my house, probably trying to find me." Maria laughed.**

"**Oh, ok. I was getting worried then. If anything happened to her I'm not sure how I'd survive!" Billy said, with obvious relief.**

**Maria felt a lump welling up in her throat. If Billy had any idea of were Kayla may actually be…**

"**I'm not either Billy. She's a great friend. I'll go make sure she's ok then. I'll tell her to come back if you like?" Maria suggested.**

"**No its alright. You two have fun" Billy waved, and with that, he walked away.**

**Maria almost sprinted up the hill to her home, well, it was more like a hovel. She sore uncle John out in the fields. Back to work. Maria scrambled about the house looking for scraps of food and water skins she could take. Then she headed for the tiny barn at the back. As she walked in, she was greeted by the familiar smell of fresh hay. This was her favourite smell. It used to remind her of the times of when her uncle used to sit on a bale and tell great adventure stories about hero's and devils. Maria walked into a shabby looking shed and heaved out the old and dusty bridle and saddle. Her uncles horse, Theo, hadn't been ridden in a long time, but, he was generally gentle and sweet to handle. Maria threw the tack over a large wooden bar which was used for drying cloths and towels. She quickly checked over Theo and grabbed the bridle. Maria gently added the bridle and then the saddle, all the while, Theo didn't stood in the same spot quietly munching on his hay. Maria attached the water skins and the oats she had gathered for Theo onto the saddle. She flung the rest of the scrap food she had found for herself into a small tattered bag and slung it onto her back. Maria grabbed hold of Theo's reins and lead him out of the barn. She looked back to were her uncle was still working. He had his back to her and was singing a tune. Maria lead Theo forward again, careful to keep him on the grass so that his hoofs didn't make a sound on the cobbles. She reached the top of the hill and she climbed on Theo for the first time. The horse jumped forward a little, but, he soon settled and sedately plodded down the other side of the hill. Maria's uncle wouldn't have any chance of seeing her now. She gently stroked the dappled grey neck of Theo and sighed.**

"**Well boy, this is it." Maria said. "There will be no more carrots and no more nice comfy stables with all you can eat hay and over flowing tanks of water, unless this place we head to is a royal palace and everyone's their partying." Maria laughed at the thought.**

**As Maria looked back, she could just make out the disappearing roofs of her village, her home and her childhood. Horse and rider reached the fringe of the forest. Maria paused. Then she bravely rode into the dark forest in search of her long lost friend.**


End file.
